working with the Asus ROG Flow X13 (2022) + XG Mobile 2022
As a part time freelancer and part time gamer, I’m always on the hunt for new tech, gadgets and tools to make my work life, hobby’s and other activity easier/more fun.
At home, I’m working at my workstation with mid to high end hardware to get my things done. When I’m on the run, I have been supported throughout the last 1 1/2 years by a 2021 Lenovo Legion 5, with a Ryzen CPU and NVIDIA dGPU (RTX 2060). In general, I was really happy with the laptop, the only thing that bothered me from time to time was the weight. With 2.1 kg, a 15″ screen and a 230w power brick, this wasn’t always fun to carry around. Waiting at the airport, being on side inspection, walking through really long hallways in hotels.
With this things in mind, I knew, it is time to look for a more portable Ultrabook. The following list has been used to start searching the available offerings.
- max. 14″ screen
- lightweight
- enough processing power for creative work (i.e. Affinity, Davinci Resolve, Blender 3D)
- AMD Ryzen CPU
- 32GB RAM
- 1TB NVME SSD
- discrete graphics (preferably NVIDIA)
- sparetime gaming performance
- non-flashy design (RGB everywhere)
- efficient cooling solution
As a nice to have bonus, I was also considering a 2-in-1 unit with good pen support. But this feature was not mandatory.
With the requirements described above, there is not much choice in the ultrabook category. After some research, these units have made it to my watchlist:
- Razer Blade Stealth 13
- ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022)
- ASUS ROG Flow X13 (2022)
- ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (2022)
To don’t waste too much time on the decision process, I’ll try to make it as simple as possible. I tried to compare each of these systems by difference in specs, what is visual most appealing to me. But then I realised, that the Flow ecosystem is extendable by the XG Mobile connector. I was aware of that feature, because I recently bought an ASUS ROG Ally, which houses also this connector. With it, you can connect an eGPU from ASUS with a lot more bandwidth compared to Thunderbolt 4. The idea of a super portable laptop, with the option to attach more power on the go, has thrilled me.
So I focused a little bit on the ASUS lineup. The Z13 couldn’t convince me to be real laptop and compared to the X13, the pricing is for it’s features way to high in my opinion.
So I decided to give the X13 a chance. At the time, there were only sometimes deals for the laptop itself, not for the bundle. After 2 weeks, I was reviewing my Amazon wish list, and by my surprise, the Flow X13 4K 32GB RAM version with a dedicated NVIDIA RTX 3050ti in a bundle with the XG mobile 2022 RX6850xtm was on sale. So I took the chance and pulled the trigger for 1.900 EUR. The bundle was also equipped with the ASUS Pen and a bag for both, laptop and XGM.
Beside a horrible delivery issue by Amazon, the package made it way to me after 2 weeks. As usual, I’m really excited about the unboxing experience and felt like a child on Christmas Eve. That’s the reason why I mostly skip the unboxing part of new gadgets of most of the techfluencers. No spoilers!
Everything is well packed inside a giant black box. All parts are packed separat. The experience was comparable in quality to the ROG Ally. After inspecting all of the content of each box, it was time to fire up the system.
I was remembering the process for the ROG Ally, so I thought it needs to be plugged into the wall for the first boot. If I remember correct, there was no hint, that some device versions are only equipped with a single USB-C charging port. So I tried to plug in the device on the right side. I was getting a little bit nervous, because after one minute of waiting for the status LED to become active, nothing happend. My inner child was crying, and the adult was going through the tidies process of sending back a device doa. So I did some research and after hundreds of reddit posts and official ASUS help pages, it became obvious to me, to disassemble the protective cover of the XG mobile port and plugged in the USB-C charger there. And e viola, the LED lighted up and the system began to boot.
From that point on, I went the exact same update path I already learned from my first ASUS purchase this year. And yes, it took hours. And I really mean, hours! This day I was not able to test anything. The laptop constantly switched between, “Hello enjoy your device” to “There are no updates, please reboot”.
After the first minutes of real usage, I thought the system doesn’t feel snappy, like it was held back by something. This impression still was present, after attaching the XG mobile for the first time. The process was clunky and not really working. Next shocking moment. I remembered the many negative feedback in regards of the device combo. Not connecting, not disconnecting… You have to reboot so many times… and so on.
So again, deep dive into the wonderful world of reddit. By the way, most of the ASUS communities are really helpful and a great place to share experience and ask for help.
Knowing I don’t want to be that guy, that is asking questions again and again, although there are many answers already out there. This research process also took a hole night, without enjoying the new product.
After many attempts to fix the clunky system by manual installing drivers, updates and firmware in a non specific order, I finished my unsatisfying project and left it on the table in the living room.
Next day after work, I finally decided to give a Cloud recovery a go. The process is well documented and not hard to run (I know, I’m more IT related, then most users out there, but it is really easy to achieve). The only thing that was driving me crazy was, I knew, I had to get over the hole update process again. But it was worth. After re-installing everything, the system booted up, and I was able to enjoy laptop, the way it was supposed to. Not only windows navigation felt way more snappy, also the process of plugging in the XGM was working flawlessly!
Finally, here we are. My opinion about the ASUS Flow X13 + XGM.
This thing is awesome! Not only the size and weight makes this one of the most portable workstation laptops. The all aluminum chassis feels so well made. The keyboard and track pad are not the best I’ve ever used, but they’re doing the job fine enough for my liking. I like that ASUS decided to keep the system as no “gamery” as possible.
For both, working and gaming, the 4k screen is really great. The max brightness is good for highly lit rooms and outdoor usage. Color accuracy is so on point. In some scenarios a little bit to saturated but overall fine.
The cooling solution keeps the system under normal load quite, which is great, if you’re working in noise sensitive environments. Although many users on reddit complained about Armory Crate, I have nothing negativ to say about it. With the addition of G-Helper, an open source tool to control most hardware related teaks of ASUS laptops, all features work flawless. I use G-Helper for disabling and enabling CPU boost if needed for example. Which brings me to topic battery life. In my experience, the battery was able to power the device in mixed scenarios, for at least 3-5 hours. Compared to my old Lenovo Legion, which is a heavy 15″ laptop, only was able to last for 1-3 hours, depending on the status of the MUX Switch. Speaking of which, there are 4 profiles for the dedicated NVIDIA GPU, the “Ultimate mode” is enabling the full potential of the dGPU, and a reboot is necessary to activate it.
If I had to describe one bad thing about the X13, I would pick the non existing upgrade path for RAM and Hardrives. So I would recommend to go with the highest equipped model with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB NVME drive.
Conclusion
Would I recommend the X13 especially in combination with the XGMobile? Yes, but it is heavily related to your use case. If you’re just looking for a portable gaming device, then I would seek for options like the ASUS Zephyrus G14. But if you’re also into creative workload like video/photo editing, 3D modelling and rendering, than absolutley!